Alonso v. Summerville (In Re Summerville)

361 B.R. 133, 2007 Bankr. LEXIS 541, 2007 WL 601230
CourtUnited States Bankruptcy Appellate Panel for the Ninth Circuit
DecidedFebruary 7, 2007
DocketBAP No. CC-06-1109-BKMo, Bankruptcy No. SV-02-20061-KT
StatusPublished
Cited by27 cases

This text of 361 B.R. 133 (Alonso v. Summerville (In Re Summerville)) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Bankruptcy Appellate Panel for the Ninth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Alonso v. Summerville (In Re Summerville), 361 B.R. 133, 2007 Bankr. LEXIS 541, 2007 WL 601230 (bap9 2007).

Opinion

OPINION

BRANDT, Bankruptcy Judge.

This appeal from an amended stay relief order presents the question of the effect of a confirmed Chapter 13 1 plan on a claim to be paid outside of the plan. Applying preclusion analysis, we conclude that the chapter 13 plan and confirmation order did not bar the debtor from contesting an obligation based on a debt being paid outside the plan, and AFFIRM.

I. FACTS

Debtor Suzanne Summerville filed a chapter 13 petition in 2002, scheduling a secured debt of $50,000 she had borrowed from Maria Alonso to purchase her home in Van Nuys, California (the “Property”). The loan was documented by a note, secured by a deed of trust on the Property, which allowed Alonso to elect to have the debt satisfied by splitting the Property, upon which election Summerville was required to quitclaim to Alonso the rear 10,-000 square feet of the Property. Alonso filed a $52,000 proof of claim, attaching the note and deed of trust.

Early in 2003 the bankruptcy court confirmed Summerville’s Second Amended Chapter 13 Plan (the “Plan”), which provided for payment of $2,000 of arrearage to Alonso by the trustee through the Plan, and for Summerville to make the ongoing monthly payments directly to Alonso. The Plan provided that property of the estate would not revest in debtor until discharge or dismissal. In case of default, the Plan expressly allowed Alonso to seek relief from the automatic stay under § 362. The record provided to us does not suggest that Alonso or anyone else objected to plan confirmation, or that there was ever an objection to Alonso’s claim.

In 2005, Alonso moved for relief from stay, alleging Summerville was delinquent on her payments on the note. She also gave notice of her election to split the lot. Summerville opposed stay relief, disputing the amount of the post-petition delinquen *138 cy. After a contested hearing, the court granted the motion and entered an order providing in part:

Movant and Debtor are both granted Relief from the Automatic Stay and have agreed that any and all further action(s), claim(s), remedies, etc., shall be sought and governed by the laws and courts of the State of California and that the United States Bankruptcy Courts and laws thereunder shall have no further jurisdiction and/or application over this request for relief from stay.

Order Granting Relief from Automatic Stay, 1 March 2005 (“RFS Order”).

In 2006, Summerville filed a state court action to prevent Alonso from proceeding with the lot split. Superior Court of California, County of Los Angeles, No. LC073318. Although the pleadings are not in the excerpts of record, counsel advise that Summerville’s claims and defenses relate to the amount of the loan, usury, and whether Alonso’s election to split the lot was proper.

The state court ruled:

I don’t believe that the state court has jurisdiction to effectively relitigate an issue that either was before the bankruptcy court or should have been before the bankruptcy court. That’s a serious issue ... if the bankruptcy court dealt with the issue, approved the plan in the bankruptcy court, I don’t see how you are going to amend around that because you are asking to relitigate that very issue, and I think the bankruptcy court order is controlling.

Transcript, 15 February 2006 at 119.

I think your remedy is in the bankruptcy court and you ought to proceed there with all haste because you’ve got legitimate issues; but on the other hand, I don’t see how you folks are going to be able to confer jurisdiction in a state court to override[,] change or relitigate issues that have been subject to a final determination of a federal bankruptcy court. That was your forum. That’s where your issue was. That’s where your order came from. And frankly, that’s where you go and get whatever question you have resolved.

Id. at 126. Although stated in jurisdictional terms, the state court’s ruling sounds more in the nonjurisdictional realm of claim or issue preclusion.

Summerville promptly returned to the bankruptcy court and filed a motion with hearing on shortened time seeking, inter alia, clarification of the RFS Order. She requested “additional language to state that no issues regarding the validity of the note and deed of trust were litigated or determined in the bankruptcy court.”

On the day of the hearing on shortened time, Alonso filed an opposition and Sum-merville filed a supplemental brief, neither of which are in the excerpts of record provided to us. At the hearing, Alonso’s counsel asserted that he had not received notice of the motion until the morning of the hearing. Transcript, 24 February 2006 at 134.

The bankruptcy court entertained argument on the motion and ruled that the Plan “set out the debtor’s proposal for treating or managing Alonso’s secured claim during the term of the plan,” but that the court had not adjudicated the parties’ contractual and property rights respecting the note and trust deed in confirming the Plan. The court entered a memorandum decision and an amended order, determining that “[n]o other adjudication of their respective rights under the terms of the note or the trust deed or California law was set out in the Plan or effectuated by confirmation of the Plan.” Memorandum and Order Granting Debt- or’s Ex Parte Motion to Clarify (“Amend *139 ed RFS Order”) at 3. It held that the RFS Order “effectively terminated the treatment of Alonso’s claim in the Plan ... [so] the parties were returned to the jurisdiction of the state court for the resolution of their disputes, if any, over Alonso’s claim against the Debtor.” Id. at 4. The court amended the RFS Order, providing:

Movant and Debtor are both granted relief from stay to adjudicate the merits of Movant’s claims against the Debtor and property of the bankruptcy estate located [in] Van Nuys, California, including but not limited to Debtor’s claims and defenses to the enforceability of Al-onso’s note and trust deed under applicable state law.

Amended RFS Order at 4. Alonso appealed.

II.JURISDICTION

The bankruptcy court had jurisdiction to issue the RFS Order via 28 U.S.C. §§ 1334(b) and 157(b)(1) and (2)(A) and (G). We have jurisdiction over this appeal under 28 U.S.C. § 158(a)(1) and (c), and address below the bankruptcy court’s jurisdiction to enter the Amended RFS Order.

III.ISSUES

1. Whether the bankruptcy court had jurisdiction to clarify its RFS Order;

2. Whether § 1327(a) or preclusion doctrines bar Summerville from raising state law defenses and claims regarding the promissory note and deed of trust;

3.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

In re: Scott Warren Cohen
Ninth Circuit, 2023
In re: Leucadia Group, LLC
Ninth Circuit, 2020
Steven Max Pottorff
D. Idaho, 2020
In re Bergmann
599 B.R. 348 (D. Idaho, 2019)
In re: William F. Garlock
Ninth Circuit, 2017
In re: Teresa A. Bryant
Ninth Circuit, 2016
In re: Judy Ann Jensen
Ninth Circuit, 2015
Edwards v. Broadwater Casitas Care Center, LLC
221 Cal. App. 4th 1300 (California Court of Appeal, 2013)
In re: Sirfiani Carlson
Ninth Circuit, 2013
In re: Micah Schnall
Ninth Circuit, 2012
In re: Steven D. Stein
Ninth Circuit, 2012
In re: Jose J. Vidales
Ninth Circuit, 2011
Dennis Pike v. James Joseph
417 F. App'x 710 (Ninth Circuit, 2011)
In Re Hathaway
401 B.R. 477 (W.D. Washington, 2009)
Griffin v. Wardrobe
Ninth Circuit, 2009

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
361 B.R. 133, 2007 Bankr. LEXIS 541, 2007 WL 601230, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/alonso-v-summerville-in-re-summerville-bap9-2007.